Winning WPPh of the Year changed
Spencer Platt.

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

“Winning the award puts you on a pedestal and more people are looking for something from you, and you don’t want to let them down.”

When Getty Images photographer won the World Press Photo of the Year early in 2007, he was unprepared for the reaction of some commentators and how it would change his life.

The image, of the young Lebanese in a red convertible Mini driving through a recently bombed part of Beirut, was a controversial and, he admits, an unconventional winner of the prestigious award.

“There was a buzz about the image,” he told CPN this week at Visa pour l’Image.

“Six months after it first appeared it was still being talked about with a passion. Some liked it some hated it, but everyone seemed to have an opinion on it.”

“Has the experience been all good? No. It's made me see the press in a different light. I've always been on this side of the press and I have never been attacked or criticised and I was unprepared for that.

“Some people said I set it up, some said I manipulated it in Photoshop. I suppose it shouldn’t have hurt me but it did,” he said.

Then the two girls in the image put their spin on it and for a brief time it appeared that they were becoming celebrities. The story began to take on a life of it's own.

“It has made a difference to the way I work and made me more aware, especially with the web, of how many people pay attention to your images and what you say.”

“It’s made me more cautious and that can be a drawback. I've just come back from Iraq and when I send images out now, I'm more aware of the power they have to change people’s perceptions, open their minds, close their minds or reinforce a stereotype or something.”

He admits to having had doubts about whether the risks he takes covering conflicts were worth it, but insists that the experience has reinvigorated him with a passion for the profession and made him a better photographer.

“It's validated the choice of path that I took in life,” he said.